Career highlights: Teamed up in 2003. Won national title in 2007 and silver medals in 2006 and 2008. Withdrew from the 2007 Four Continents freeskate after Davison accidentally hit Dube with his blade in the face during the side-by-side camel spin. The two-time silver medallists at the world junior championship won the bronze at the world championship in 2008.

Quote: “We wanted to see going into the Olympics what kind of programs would suit us the best, and if something aggressive would be good for us. We really like the program, it's really fun to work on, and it’s interesting for us because we’re seen as a classical, romantic team and it’s fun to skate outside of our box.” — Davison on their ‘Carmen’ freeskate which they unveiled at Skate Canada 2008.

***

YUKO KAWAGUCHI/ALEXANDER SMIRNOV

Country: Russia

Date of birth: Nov. 20, 1981/Oct. 11, 1984

Career highlights: Teamed up in 2006. Kawaguchi competed in singles for her native Japan before switching to pairs and has been living and training in Russia since 2003. Two-time defending national champs were ninth at the worlds in 2007 and fourth in 2008. Disappointing showing at 2008 Grand Prix Final where they were fifth. They had won Skate Canada and finished second at Cup of Russia. The couple has landed the quadruple throw Salchow in competition.

Quote: “I don’t want to say anything bad about my previous partners, but in comparison to her, they were much weaker. Usually you have to push our Russian girls in practice, but here it’s the opposite. Sometimes I am tired and she is pushing me.” — Smirnov on Kawaguchi

***

QING PANG/JIAN TONG

Country: China

Date of birth: Dec. 24, 1979/Aug. 15, 1979

Past Olympic experience: Their two Olympic showings were ninth in 2002 and fourth in 2006.

Career highlights: The defending Grand Prix Final champs were also first at the NHK Trophy and third at Cup of China in 2008. They have skated at world championships together since 2002 and have been fifth twice, fourth twice, third, second and first in 2006. Pang was a singles skater until 1993 when coach Bin Yao teamed her up with Tong. After skating in singles, Tong went into ice dancing for two years, then switched to pairs.

Quote: “This comes as a little surprise to us. We are very happy to have won tonight. We didn’t have so good results last year and this is a good comeback for us. We feel strong again. This is the first time for us to win the Grand Prix Final, we medalled before, but we never won. So this is the second best result for us after winning Worlds.” — Tong after winning the Grand Prix Final in 2008.

***

DAN ZHANG/HAO ZHANG

Country: China

Date of birth: Dan: April 10, 1985/June 7, 1984

Past Olympic experience: They were 11th at the 2002 Olympics and scored silver medals in 2006. Dan Zhang took a hard fall on the quad throw Salchow attempt at the 2006 Olympics and sprained ligaments in her knee but finished the freeskate.

Career highlights: Teamed up in 1997 and are not related to one another. In 2008 they won the Cup of Russia and Cup of China but had to settle for second at the Grand Prix Final. Their vast worlds experience incorporates two silver medals, a bronze, two fifths, a sixth and a ninth. They also won the world junior title in 2003. Performed the first quadruple twist seen at the world junior championship in 2002.

Quote: “We are not too happy with how we skated as we made three major errors — on two jumps and on the lift. We lost about 17 points which is really regrettable and I apologize for that. I slipped a little going into the lift and I didn’t have enough strength. The performance itself wasn’t bad, we showed the character of the program. The only problem were the elements.” — Hao Zhang after winning the 2008 Cup of Russia.

***

ALIONA SAVCHENKO/ROBIN SZOLKOWY

Country: Germany

Date of birth: Savchenko: Jan. 19, 1984/Szolkowy: July 14, 1979

Past Olympic experience: They were sixth at the 2006 Olympics.

Career highlights: Savchenko won the 2000 world junior pairs champion with Stanislav Morozov while competing for Ukraine, where she was born. She moved to Germany in 2003 to team up with Szolkowy. Savchenko/Szolkowy won the 2004 German nationals and every other one since. Won the world title in 2008 after previously finishing third and sixth. In 2008 they were third in the Grand Prix Final after winning both Trophee Eric Bompard and Skate America.

Quote: “A couple of people came to us and told us that it wasn’t so bad as we felt it was. Indeed, it wasn’t so bad, otherwise we wouldn’t have had more points than at Skate America. But again we missed the throw Salchow and we made a mistake on the throw flip. We did the other elements, though. There is a lot of room left for improvement and luckily this isn’t yet the end of the season.” — Szolkowy after winning the 2008 Trophee Eric Bompard in November.

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